The Hui Muslim street food vendors in the neighbourhood around the Great Mosque produce some of the best fast food in Hohhot. The essential items are lamb skewers (羊肉串) marinated in cumin, chilli flakes, and salt and cooked over charcoal, sesame flatbreads (烧饼) baked in a wood-fired tandoor-style oven, and bowls of lamb noodle soup (羊杂汤) thick with offal and bright with fresh coriander. None of these is expensive and all three are served from small roadside stalls rather than sit-down restaurants.
The nang bread stalls, in particular, are worth seeking out: the flatbreads come out of the oven puffed and scorched, torn apart and eaten immediately with a dipping sauce of chilli and vinegar. The lamb noodle soup is a morning food but appears throughout the day. The evening skewer scene in the lanes around the mosque starts around 6 PM and continues until late, with vendors gradually colonising the pavement and the smell of cumin and charcoal making the neighbourhood impossible to navigate on an empty stomach.